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20 January 2016

Our presenter, Francis Storr, @fstorr.

Our Topic Was…

Information architects talk of information environments as places made of information; we go online, visit sites (and sometimes look at their maps), chat in rooms, add products to carts. Care must be taken from everyone involved in the creation of these places to ensure they’re accessible to everyone regardless of ability.

Designers need to create places are inclusive to as many people as possible. It’s no longer acceptable to exclude aural design in whatever the current definition of UX is. Likewise, front-end developers need to have a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of their craft to create accessible places.

The pattern languages of digital design and development have built in semantic goodness that is frequently missing from modern places of information. Accessible places improve inclusion, diversity, and are almost always a legal requirement. If product teams embrace accessibility from the start, everyone wins and the world will be a better place.

Our Presenter, Francis Storr

Francis Storr is Lead Designer for Intel’s Software Accessibility Program; prior to that he was a senior interaction designer for the company. Francis has been working in technology for fifteen years, starting off as developer and then moving into user experience. Whether developing or designing, he’s always seen accessibility as a critical responsibility in his work, and has very definite opinions on whether designers should know how to code, and developers’ pursuit of the new-and-shiny over acquiring a solid knowledge of the basics.